Is this perfectly legal or is it a breach of ethics?  

Currently, it is difficult for me to secure a loan because I have a fairly high debt-to-income ratio and I work at my own business which has less than 6 months of history.

Is it possible to know what I would qualify for before securing a property to comfortably know that I can put in an offer? 

A combination of fake cameras and a security system sign in the yard is an effective and cheap way to keep squatters out.

We don’t have to settle for low paying, secure jobs.

This simply means that the person who is borrowing uses the physical property as security in exchange for financing.

Nonetheless it was enough to secure the home and get approved.

Plan to refinance within 2 years and utilize the appreciation to help securing capital from our other two STR in the area.

The variation in price is a function of their business model: where are they securing their inventory and at what cost, what are their labor, marketing, and other business costs, and what profit they desire.To your specific question, "yes," the bank can basically offer whatever number they want.

The police asked if there was any security camera recordings, but when I contacted the management company, they said that there were not recordings because the memory cards had been removed from the cameras.